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Thursday, March 15, 2012

How to Buy a laptop without OS

I currently own an Acer eMachines EM350 netbook and I need something more powerful now. I need a good laptop. I have been using Ubuntu, and consequently not been using Windows, in my personal Computer for over 5 years now. And to say the least I would be using Ubuntu in the new laptop as well. But as I soon realized its not an easy job to get a laptop without Windows preinstalled. So I started looking hard for one.

While price wasn't a concern, I knew that I wouldn't be needing more than an i5. I had narrowed down to 3 Brands - Dell, Asus, Samsung.

I went and searched for Laptops without OS/with Linux at various places, and that means I wanted to buy it online. If you are living in the US/Europe probably things will be easier but I live in India.

There are 3 Sites that are trustworthy and sell Laptops.

Flipkart.com - Dell,Asus and Samsung all have laptops on flipkart that come with Free DOS. And Dell has a few with Linux.

Dell.co.in - Since Asus and Samsung do not sell on their website. Dell inspite of having laptops with linux and free dos for some reason doesn't show them in their site. I would have loved to directly buy from dell's wesite otherwise.

Now it came to a simple fact. where do i get the best price for the same configuration.
I found an Inspiron N4050 for 30k but turns out the seller doesn't ship to Bangalore. What the hell. Where does he ship to!!

I found an Inspiron N5050 for 31.5k and I found the same being priced in Flipkart and dell's site(with windows) for above 40k . This seemed like a pretty good deal to me So i went for it.

The Seller in Ebay had an impressive satisfaction rating of 100%. The laptop was shipped in 3 days and reached my home in another 4 days by bluedart.